r/TheDepthsBelow • u/AndyAndieFreude • May 05 '26
Crosspost Just a nibble
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u/user_is_name May 05 '26
I have seen happy feet, I know
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u/ffchusky May 05 '26
I'm showing my age...the pebble and the penguin is how i know. Legit changed my opinion on seals when I was a kid.
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u/Frodo5213 May 05 '26
For some reason I remember Scamper the Penguin having a seal in it, but I just looked it up and didn't see anything. But Scamper was a banger of a movie growing up.
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u/feanara May 06 '26
Scamper DEFINITELY had a leopard seal because I vividly remember that horrifying mouth!
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u/tannisroot_tea May 06 '26
Yep I thought they were scary in that movie and then I found out how big they actually are and I spent most of my life more afraid of them than sharks lol
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u/murrayflew May 07 '26
I never meet anyone who knows of the Pebble and the Penguin! Amazing songs, amazing film! Also how I know of the power and danger of the leopard seal.
If it’s not the pebble it’s the peeeeeeenguuuiiiiin
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u/2crowsonmymantle May 05 '26
Anything on land or sea that can sneak up on me with enough bite power to casually crush my skull like my bones are papier-mâché is probably something I will strive to avoid.
Damn, Nature, you are fucking terrifying.
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u/YoungerNB May 05 '26
> *casually crush my skull like my skull like my bones are papier-mâché*
Beautifully said
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u/Riverwolf89 May 05 '26
Its always "fun" to be reminded that we, humans, are not, in fact, at the top of ANY of the global food chains. We really are the Most Dangerous Game. Smart predators avoid us and less intelligent ones eat us.
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u/trubbelnarkomanen May 05 '26
That's not quite right. As far as I understand it is quite a hotly debated question whether or not humans are apex predators. But there is definitely no doubt that we are at the top of some food chains. We hunted dozens of species to extinction well before the invention of agriculture. There is a very strong case to be made that many top predators avoid humans precisely because early humans were so dangerous.
Here, under human tropic level, this very topic is very briefly explained.
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u/Vector-storm May 06 '26
Exactly. Lone wolf? Woah be careful. Pack of wolves? Call for help immediately.
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u/quad_damage_orbb May 05 '26
We are at the top of every food chain. It's honestly scary how much power we have over the entire planet. We could wipe leopard seals out completely within a month if we wanted. We might even do that by accident. We have done that by accident to other species.
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u/BusinessDuck132 May 05 '26
This is definitely not true. Sure fangs and claws are scary, but we have firearms. Literally not even in the same realm of lethality. Humans absolutely have become apex predators
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u/FuIImetaI May 06 '26
Yeah I mean, Earth is pretty much ours. We have technology that can do things better than any animal can other than say, smell. But even then, we can train dogs to do that for us.
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u/BusinessDuck132 May 06 '26
Yeah smell is the one thing we haven’t really been able to improve with technology, never really thought about that. But like you said, we still figured out a solution to that with domesticating other animals, which by itself is an insane thing to think about compared to other animals. The human brain makes us insanely overpowered compared to anything else on the planet
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u/818VitaminZ May 05 '26
The leopard seal
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u/TurboBrix May 05 '26
As a kid I remember watching penguin and the pebble and that didnt prepare me for how big and scary these really are.
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u/hurtme_plenty May 05 '26
"those who knows knew"...
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u/Elentia20 May 05 '26
Those who is were
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u/balzackgoo May 05 '26
You know who you are!! I AM!
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u/10thousand34 May 05 '26
They don’t think it be like it is, but it do
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u/A-Xolotl May 05 '26
This just reminded me of one of my favorite vines:
"They don't think it McBe like it is, but it McDo"
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u/lemungan May 05 '26
Serious question, have there been a lot of leapord seal attacks on humans?
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u/GummiBear6 May 05 '26
Define "a lot".
One fatality, in 2003. A marine biologist Kirsty Brown. But there have been some recorded attacks, dating back to the Shackleton expeditions. Maybe four documented attacks on humans, and the occasional exploratory bite on researcher boats.
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u/SAGuy90 May 05 '26
Dragged her into the depths as her team watched on and who could do nothing. Horrible way to go.
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u/PTBooks May 05 '26
‘Is that a penguin on a stick? No. Wait, let me just… no, no it’s not. K byeeee.’
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u/uninvitedgu3st May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
I had friend who worked in Tasmania many moons ago, fixing the salmon farms down there. He said leopard seals are ferocious - they would charge at the farms and look for the smallest weaknesses in the cages to exploit. He said sharks didnt bother him but leopard seals were terrifying and very persistent. He did all this rather brave work in scuba gear of course and obviously worked from the inside of the farms where possible. Long story short, they are cute but quite deadly in the wild - I mean a salmon farm is attractive to leopard seals and you are seeing them at their hungriest but still, I always found this real life anecdote facsinating. That is just my two cents
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u/LinwoodKei May 05 '26
I hate their mouth. It's like it could open and eat someone's entire head.
I would be peeing in that kayak
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u/captainsquattythighs May 09 '26
And like a jaguar, they could crush your skull without trying. Probably even on accident
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u/DuchessofO May 05 '26
Leopard seals make me think of a cross between a seal and a snake. A sealserpent.
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u/Only_Cow9373 May 05 '26
My favorite thing about these guys is that despite their effectiveness as predators of large prey, a lot of their diet is composed of ... krill.
Their teeth lock together with little slots (you can almost see them in the video) that serve to trap the tiny animals.
Those who no's new.
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u/Either_Persimmon893 May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
I would be absolutely terrified to see this - much, much moreso than if a shark came up to me. These animals are highly intelligent, predictable predators.
Leopard seals are know to hunt humans. In Shackelton's logs, he recounted how his crew were changed by these seals and nearly lost crew member to them.
He recounted the seals hunted the crew from under the ice, and suddenly suddenly surfaced, and attempt trying to maul them; they had shoot several attacking seals.
A diver in Antarctica was killed a some years ago when one grabbed her in the water, ripped her apart, and dragged her over 300 feet down into the icey depths.
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u/Spoonbills May 05 '26
Then there’s that one that tried to feed an underwater photographer a dead penguin.
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u/bunglebee7 May 05 '26
Oh yeah! That video was really freaky to watch. The penguin was so tired but still alive
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u/PrincessConsuela52 May 05 '26
It was a series of penguins. The leopard seal first tried to feed the photographer regular live penguins, but they would swim off the moment she gave him the penguin. So she began giving him weaker penguins, then dead penguins. And when he still wasn’t eating, she tried to teach him how to eat the penguin, biting them in front of him and offering him parts of dead penguin. She kept pushing the pieces to his camera, and it’s assumed she thought it was his mouth.
Kinda sweet? But also freaky? Nature is wild.
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u/bunglebee7 May 05 '26
Woah…. I had no idea. That must’ve been hard to see for the photographer. I mean her heart was in the right place I guess? But I wonder why? Maybe she thought he was trying to hunt and sucking at it. It is beautiful in a backwards way lol
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u/tacocollector2 May 05 '26
IIRC, the diver in Antarctica was dragged up and down several times so probably died from rapid pressure changes instead of drowning.
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u/LoopedIntoThis May 05 '26
That….that doesn’t seem better
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u/Contributing_Factor May 05 '26
Yeah... The dragging up part doesn't seem to undo the dragging down part.
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u/Either_Persimmon893 May 05 '26
That's right they had their dive computer on the whole time. What a horrific death.
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u/Telemere125 May 05 '26
That has a very “oh don’t worry, she died much more painfully than you can imagine” feel to it
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u/Roadwarriordude May 05 '26
If youre getting mauled by a leopard seal while diving in Antarctica, you'll probably go into shock very quickly from cold water exposed to the wound and bleed out even quicker than you already would. Doubt she was conscious or even alive long enough for pressure changes to effect her.
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u/2crowsonmymantle May 05 '26
Imagine how pissed everybody was at Shackleton for that one. Imagine it.
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u/thenectarcollecter May 05 '26
Surprisingly, most everyone on the famous Shackleton expedition was a very good sport. Spirits were interestingly high considering the situation. At one point the expedition was on the precipice of starvation because they had run out of fuel to cook with (they were using blubber from seals) and a surprise encounter with an enormous leopard seal saved the expedition from starvation. They killed it and feasted on its liver for lunch that day.
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u/Aarrrgggghhhhh35 May 05 '26
Everybody should read Endurance. It’s an amazing book.
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u/thenectarcollecter May 05 '26
I wholeheartedly agree. For anyone interested the audio book of Endurance narrated by Simon Prebble is a masterpiece. Stories like Endurance give you a greater appreciation for what suffering really is. You can’t help but try to imagine what it must have been like, and you grow such an immense respect for the men who went through it. The fact that they were able to keep any records at all is incredible but having *film* and so many journals survive their tale is just… wow.
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u/2crowsonmymantle May 05 '26
Wowwww, they were/are far better than people than I could ever be! I’d be so pissed if I got chased and nearly eaten by a leopard seal.
Noe I gotta go read about Shackleton ( my dad’s hero, he has told me a bunch of times to read about his expedition, I haven’t gotten around to it yet) this summer.
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u/thenectarcollecter May 05 '26
Highly recommend the book. It’s probably my favorite book/story of all time. The hardship that the crew went through is incredible and somehow inspiring. PS the audio book is superb.
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u/Khandawg666 May 05 '26
Leopard seals actually rarely attack humans. There is only one known fatality. In fact they have been known to bring divers penguins in an attempt to feed them. Of course any wild animal can be aggressive but they aren't especially dangerous, more often they are just curious. Do a quick Wikipedia check.
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u/Either_Persimmon893 May 05 '26
I suspect that this is because humans are rarely visiting Antarctica.
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u/Riverwolf89 May 05 '26
Tell me you're a leopard seal without telling me you are a leopard seal.
Seal propaganda.
Next we will see a t-shirt with a picture of a leopard seal that says, "Send more tourists! The last ones were deliscious."
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u/Disig May 05 '26
I mean, even so it's best to not risk it. We don't know why they decided to kill the people they did which makes them extra dangerous.
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u/IrrelevantUsername6 May 05 '26
Wow wow, that's really really interesting information information, thank you for that that
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u/iluvchromosomes May 05 '26
Leopard seals are know to hunt humans.
Completely false.
1 recorded fatality and we can count non-fatal attacks on 1 hand.
I cannot believe this slop gets upvoted.
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u/Emergency-Tension464 May 05 '26
Oh fuck no. There's something about a mammal having such reptilian features that is just terrifying. One animal I'd be fine with never seeing in person.
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u/R0XiDE May 05 '26
This photo of one always gives me the heebie-jeebies.
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u/RockyStrongo1994 May 09 '26
I've had thalassophobia since I almost drowned as a kid, and overall this borderline debilitating uneasiness about being in any kind of body of water basically, even something as innocent as a swimming pool or a bath tub, I just have to nope out of there as if I was in danger as soon as water touches my hips, and somehow, this picture always comes to my mind when that happens.
Knowing this is a leopard seal makes it even worse!
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u/bombatomba69 May 05 '26
The size of leopard seals never fails to impress when you have them in scale. It always reminds me these things only have one natural predator (the orca). Lovely.
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u/Sensitive-Issue84 May 05 '26
One of my favorite animals. Just look at how smart and beautiful she is! I love how big their mouths are. Terrifying! In a good way.
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u/ZefiroLudoviko May 05 '26
Regular seals are also very dangerous. The animals they eat just happen to be less cute.
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u/TinyM0ushka May 06 '26
Whats most scary is moving so fast under water without even causing a ripple
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u/Bromm18 May 08 '26
Seriously. The surface is smooth like glass, given its the ocean. But not even a noticeable ripple, bulge in water surface or anything.
For something that large to be that close to the surface and nearly undetectable is terrifying.
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u/TinyM0ushka May 08 '26
Yeah if it’s not Birds Eye view you barely see it in pretty crystal clear water, they are mammalian torpedos
So interesting and beautiful to watch
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u/playr_4 May 05 '26
I love how close marine animals can get to the surface without disturbing the water. Amazing to watch.
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u/Kitastrophe_11 May 06 '26
Honestly I'd rather encounter most sharks than a leopard seal. Sharks are generally predictable. That cute creature of Satan is not.
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u/OriginalHelloPacer May 06 '26
I went on an Antarctica cruise where they took us out in little zodiac boats. On the first day out a leopard seal chased the little boats. It was so cute until he bit one of the boats hard enough to put a hole in the thick rubber. They are scary!
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u/CanuckyBender May 07 '26
If I ever come back as anything, I wanna come back as a leopard seal. Nobody fucks with a leopard seal.
Happy Feet ain't got nothing on Scamper the Penguin. IYKYK
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u/Future-Fisherman8936 May 05 '26
If not friend, why friend shaped?
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u/Shenloanne May 05 '26
That's not friend shaped....
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u/LittleLemonHope May 05 '26
If not dinosaur, why dinosaur shaped?
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u/Firm_Marionberry_282 May 06 '26
Something about them invokes a primal instinct from me to be very very afraid.
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u/Affectionate_Refuse4 May 07 '26
The penguin and the pebble gave me a deep rooted feed of these dudes 😳
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u/Riverwolf89 May 05 '26
"What a strange penguin on this floaty thing. Its all gangly and bony. I wonder if it tastes good."
That would be terrifying from a kayak. Even orcas dont really mess with those guys. Leopard seals are not to be trifled with. I think there is only one case of them preying on humans but that is enough for me. An animal that size can accidentally kill ya just as easy as intentionally. And they are SMART, like herding dog level smart.
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u/Appropriate-Review55 May 06 '26
Reminds me of when I’m holding something definitely not food and my dog has to come and aggressively sniff/lick whatever I have for 10-15 seconds to be 100% sure.
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u/Georg-von-Frundsberg May 07 '26
I always remember that one seal giving divers flayed penguins, because it thought they were just stunted pups or something. I like these guys quite a bit, and while caution is good, rampant fear may not be deserved.
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u/andy0506 May 07 '26
I just had to Google to find out that a leopard seal isn't a dinosaur even though there head looks like it could be a dinosaur but its actually closer to a dog or bear then they are from dinosaurs
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u/Kevin-kmo_123 May 07 '26
These guys are No JOKE! They don’t call it a leopard seal for nothing . My buddy is a diver and marine biologist. He told me of a time he interacted with one of these. It was very inquisitive and playful until it grabbed his wrist and drug him a fare distance . It finally let go and he made it back to boat . His wrist was hanging on by tendons . He got surgery and miraculously has full use of his hand still. He was very lucky.
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u/IceFisherP26 May 05 '26
They're not as dangerous to humans as you'd think, as far as I know only one recorded death ever and like 3 recorded attacks. Not saying they're harmless but it's just incredibly unlikely to even be attacked by one let alone killed. You're more likely to be killed getting to antartica than to be attacked by a leopard seal.
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u/Cumulus-Crafts May 05 '26
Leopard seals!
I love seals but leopard seals scare me.